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1.4.3-Pilferingapples
Les Miserables Brick!club, 1.4.3, The Lark Or, I CAN’T EVEN COME UP WITH JOKEY SUBTITLES I’M WRITHING IN HORROR ”..the poor lark never sang.” NEVER SANG NEVER CASTLE ON A CLOUD WAS THE UPBEAT HOPEFUL SUNNY VERSION OF HER LIFE She’s five and she’s basically non-verbal, all she can see is that she’s the only person being treated the way she’s treated, so surely the fault’s with her, she’s being trained to see herself as less-than constantly and AGH Eponine and Azelma didn’t have any say in this but they’re being trained to see affection as conditional, something to be removed in the most brutal fashion if they’re ever deemed unworthy, and part of the contract that keeps them on the ‘caresses’ side of the equation is to join in despising this other girl who they played with once and everyone sees what’s going on is praising the Thenardiers for the way they treat this child, even though this is apparently NOT THE DONE THING IN GENERAL since Cosette’s the only one up and working, not “Cosette and the other charity children” The whole book’s just full of commentary on the way society corrupts the individual but I don’t think any of it is quite so Omelas-creepy to me as the way this ENTIRE VILLAGE watches a child being destroyed, acknowledges it with a nickname, laughs about it, and does nothing. (I wonder what would have happened if someone DID interfere— would the Thenardiers have sold Cosette to one of the townspeople? If she’d just wandered away, would they have gone after their property? Would she have been returned to their door if she ran away? ) (basically this is horrible and I want to be nice to everyone now, I hope other people have more cogent comments than me because I am just not holding up well at all) Commentary Maedhrys Oh my God now I am thinking of Cosette runs away fic??? HOW COULD YOU MAKE ME SO SAD Sarah1281 They’re only the same age as Cosette or younger so it’s really not their fault but I always tend to forget that Eponine and Azelma actually take part in the abuse of Cosette. It’s not just that they are part of the family that abuses her, they actually knowingly and willingly partake in it as well. It’s all they know and it’s tragic and it definitely does not sit right with me. I don’t think not knowing about that or forgetting it is uncommon, either, given…well, a lot of things but especially just how young they all were. And Eponine, for all her failings, does grow up to be a better person than her parents and who even knows how that happened. Treblemirinlens This chapter makes me so sad that I find myself clinging to the sunnier version in Shoujo Cosette where baby Gavroche would sneak her food and the local priest (and also at least one guest at the inn) could tell things were wrong and tried to help as best he could without making things worse. Patricolored-socks I’m not really in Brick!club but I stalk it and um I don’t really have anything to contribute except yes to all of this and also possibly the reason the village watches and does nothing is the crab-bucket effect, as explained by Pratchett. One crab tries to climb out, the others pull it back in. So in the end, none of them bother trying to climb out anymore. Gascon-en-exile I don’t often get to reference other musicals, but this chapter is a tragically obvious analogue to “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” from Sweeney Todd. There’s even a verse about larks: My cage has many rooms, damask and dark. Nothing there sings, not even my lark. Larks never will, you know, when they’re captive. Teach me to be more adaptive. Not surprising when Anthony/Joanna is like Marius/Cosette if it were even more psychologically messed up (and more aware of it, too), but it’s an interesting parallel regardless. I feel as though I’ve been phoning in Brick club posts for the last few days, and as my workload for the next week and a half is going to be consistently crushing that’s probably going to keep being the case. I therefore can’t take much more time for introspection on this chapter, though if anyone cares my favorite line here is “''Certaines natures ne peuvent aimer d’un côté sans haïr de l’autre.” I can relate to the necessary of a parallel love and hatred on both a familial and a personal level. Which doesn’t sound very appealing, but then anyone reading between the lines - and sometimes the lines themselves - on my blog can tell that I’m pretty psychologically messed up (and aware of it, too). At least I’m not sweetly buried in anyone’s yellow hair…seriously Anthony…. '''Kcrabb88' OH you mentioned Castle on a Cloud and that tune is stuck in my head and just just POOR COSETTE. Whenever I see people being unkind toward Cosette when talking about her character I just want to shout at them “THE LARK NEVER SANG!” Really looking at just this very first chapter concerning Cosette, makes me even happier that she turned out the way she did. What a strong character, because WOW what things she had to overcome, and she is so unceasingly kind. That’s a really good point about this teaching Eponine and Azelma to see love as conditional, I hadn’t thought of it that way before!! Poor girls, with their terrible parents. It has always, always bothered me that not one person in that ENTIRE village did anything to help Cosette. I believe humanity is innately good because I’m an optimist and can’t help it, so this just makes me wonder if there were just NO good people in this town? I feel like that can’t be true. Or were they so run down by their own terrible circumstance that they could only result to cruelty, were their own good natures ripped away by poverty? Or even if not cruelty just flat out apathy? Were they just so worn down that they literally did not have the energy or will to help Cosette? Did they not know how truly awful Cosette’s circumstances were? That wouldn’t surprise me, given how good the Thenardiers are at fooling people. I have all the questions and none of the answers. It also makes me wonder if it has anything to do with the sort of “Bystander Syndrome,” that thing where people witness something terrible happening and don’t do anything because they assume someone else has or will do it instead. It’s almost like when people jump in front of trains here in DC; people only get grabbed back from the tracks every once in a while because people, while horrified, stand there and stare, assuming someone else will help. It seems almost like a natural human impulse that one has to first be aware of to fight off, and these people are CLEARLY not aware. I guess I just can’t imagine seeing that poor little girl treated like that and not wanting to at the VERY LEAST sneak her food or something. I mean, she eats out of a wooden dish like the DOGS. I do feel like if Cosette ran away they might have gone after her, possibly, if only to keep getting money from Fantine. They didn’t give her away so easily to Valjean in the first place, really. I just can’t help but think that Valjean really had his work cut out for him in making this poor child even start recovering from what happened to her, which isn’t something that would ever leave her, not totally. In continuing to make references to other characters and groups of characters, I have always felt that Cosette was just the embodiment of what Les Amis were fighting for, and I feel like that’s just a really powerful tie-in. This chapter is weaved of tears, sadness, and the torn off garments of distraught readers. I just…have a lot of Cosette feelings. Pilferingapples (reply to Kcrabb88) I think you’re right on about the Bystander Effect- it’s no one’s direct responsibility to look after Cosette, so they stand around waiting for Someone to Do Something. I do feel like Cosette is like…half the mission statement of the book. But my thoughts on this are not very coherent! I’d love to read your thoughts though! Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) I agree about the Bystander Effect going on. It reminds me of the beginning of the first Harry Potter book (because apparently my way of engaging with a text is to constant reference other things). Tiny!Harry is clearly not in a great situation, what with the oversized clothes that are half rags and the skinniness and the way Dudley picks on him and the adults pay no attention to him. Like, even if you don’t know details, it’s clear that there’s something not right there. And no one does anything. They just sit there at let it happen. And it seems to be a combination of, “oh, it can’t be that bad, these are good people!” and “this is not my problem.” Which I think fits with the Thenardier situation too, since they seem to have managed to convince the others in town that they are good people or at least not terrible ones (which makes me feel better about Fantine’s judgement since at least it’s not just her who doesn’t see them for what they are). Kcrabb88 (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) I agree, she’s probably absolutely half of the mission statement of the book! I don’t know how coherent my thoughts are exactly, I just know I have a lot of Cosette thoughts (almost as many as I have Enjolras thoughts!) so after a while they start to combine! And after all this Bricking and writing fic and watching Shoujo Cosette, I feel like I have so many Cosette/Les Amis thoughts in my head; but probably enough that they require their own post, so I’ll get to that when I’m released from the terrible thing that is work on a Friday afternoon, of all things. :D